


Accumulation

by Brynnen, TwaCorbies (Brynnen)



Series: Avengers Recovering and Reassembling [4]
Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 'ordinary' people doing good, Big Bertha - Freeform, Clearing the rubble, Doorman - Freeform, Gen, Great Lakes Avengers, Making Friends, healthy female admiration, slight femslashy overtones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 01:27:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13870161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynnen/pseuds/Brynnen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynnen/pseuds/TwaCorbies
Summary: New York's recovery and that of the Avengers intersect, thanks to a familiar face.It's going to take time for both of them to set themselves right, but things are moving in the right direction.





	Accumulation

Tony stripped the extra blankets from his bed, contemplated the pile of them on the floor and dropped on top of them, wriggling and scribbling his scent into the soft fabric. Bruce had said he was trying a few ways of getting Hulk used to them, used to the idea of the team as his, people who would not hurt him. Coulson was obviously putting him up to this, trying to angle Bruce's work in the direction of strengthening the team, rather than Bruce's desire to mitigate Hulk's violence. Tony didn't disapprove, he liked Bruce, wanted him to stay.

His chest tightened as he contemplated baring his feelings to Bruce, but dismissed the idea with a rueful headshake. The emotional intensity would probably be too much and in any case, Bruce knew. For different, but equally survival-oriented reasons both of them had decent people reading skills, even if Bruce's were subconscious. No, they were both too raw for that kind of intensity at this point.

Tony smiled to himself as he bundled the blankets up for Bruce to sleep in tonight. He'd have delivered them to the other geek personally, but he was out taking in some city air with Cap.

Out amongst the rubble Bertha looked up to work out where to place the I-beam in her hands and nearly dropped it in surprise when she saw a familiar face, 'Hey Mr Bannister!' She shifted the beam onto her shoulder so she could wave to the man, then bounced over at the foreman's nod.

'Have you been in town long? I came over with Demarr to help with the clean-up as soon as we saw it on the news. You weren't caught up in it were you?' She hoped he hadn't, the aftermath was horrific enough.

Steve blinked at the huge fat woman in a swimsuit who had hopped over, gently grasped Bruce by the shoulders and started firing questions at him in a Wisconsin accent.

'Sorry Ma'am, but who are you?' He had to look up to meet her eyes, it was an unusual experience for him these days.

'Oh, hello Captain America, I'm Big Bertha the ample Amazon.' As ever she concealed a grimace at the name. 'I'm with the Great Lakes Champions, although we were the Lightning Rods when I helped Mr Bannister out against those bad guys.' Ashley caught the famous superhero's blank expression. 'We may not be one of the great teams, but we've got heart!'

Steve caught the defensive tone in her voice and hurried to offer the hand of friendship. 'Pleased to meet you Big Bertha.'

'Bertha saved me when Ross and a unit of special forces sadists caught up with me in Milwaukee, she knocked them down like dominoes and then grabbed me and jumped away to safety.' Bruce added, voice warm at the memory of someone standing up for him. She'd carried him like a doll, deflecting bullets with a sweep of her fleshy arm. It had been incredible.

Big Bertha gave Bruce an old-fashioned look. 'I notice you didn't say anything about...' She gestured to the wreckage all around them.

'Hey, you ready to finish up for the day?' A man dressed head to toe in identity-concealing black spandex called to the big woman as he hopped over a pile of debris.

'Demarr! Eh, gimme a moment.' She carefully moved the I-beam she'd dropped, depositing it in the back of one of the trucks carrying metal to a local smelter to be reforged. 'If you want to catch up, Demarr and I were going out for pizza this evening if you wanted to tag along.'

'Bertha's riding high, her incognito side's got a big gig here in New York, so we're celebrating.' The man Bertha had called Demarr explained.

Bruce looked to Steve who shrugged. 'We did want a change of scenery, going out for pizza suits me.'

Bertha smiled. 'Great, give me five minutes and I'll be changed.'

Bruce smiled and quietly looked forward to seeing Steve's reaction to Ashley Crawford. 'Sure. We'll stay here. Not that there's anywhere much to wander off to here.'

Demarr was back in minutes' wearing street clothes and carrying a sports bag. 'Man, this place is a mess and now we've got all the survivors out the wreckage I'm as much help as any other average Joe.' His generically handsome features were furrowed in unhappiness as he remembered the mangled bodies and grievously injured people he'd help get out of the wreckage.

'Were there many?' Steve had to ask, even as he knew torturing himself with the knowledge was useless. Demarr looked surprised at him.

'Have you been living in a box for the past two weeks, man?' He shrugged. 'New York's one of the most densely populated places in North America, the collatoral deaths should have been in the hundreds of thousands, millions even. The police and other emergency forces got most people out, but the first two days I helped pull seventy-eight people out alive, they say about three thousand survivors have been rescued and eighteen hundred people were killed, either by the alien things or by falling wreckage. So much blood...' His voice trembled in recollection.

'Hey Demarr, easy there.' Bertha's voice come from behind them and a drop dead gorgeous woman slipped past Steve to grasp Demarr's shoulders gently and look down into his eyes. 'You saved nearly eighty lives by coming with me to do this, eighty people who without a class ten teleporter might not have survived long enough for rescuers to get to.'

Steve felt emotions swirl in his gut, guilt, shame, horror and also respect for these two people who'd seen the TV news and travelled from Milwaukee to help their fellow man. He focused on the warm admiration and tried not to stare at the beautiful woman speaking in the same voice as big Bertha.

'She's right, you've saved lives by being here Demarr.' Steve patted him on the shoulder comfortingly.

Bruce smiled at Steve's very careful non-reaction. 'You guys dropped everything to help your fellow men. By even deciding to come you made sure the death toll was smaller than it could have been.' He let awe colour his voice, so many supers seemed to relish the fighting aspect of their role, neglecting this constructive aspect of their gifts. 'But Ashley, why are we celebrating?'

Demarr perked up at this. 'Wisconsin's top supermodel is taking on New York! The carnage means most of the top models are staying away, which is gonna make New York Fashion Week a real shake-up.'

'I don't usually take work out of state, I don't wanna leave my friends back home, but showing solidarity with New York as both Big Bertha and Ashley Crawford was too powerful a motive to ignore. Especially since the money might be enough for a Cessna.' Her face warmed, excitement making her eyes glitter. 'I've got my pilot's licence already, if I could afford a plane then I could stay in Milwaukee without missing so many opportunities. Which would make my agent happy!'

The pair's affection and respect for one another made Steve feel warm inside. This superhero team he'd never heard of, in spite of Shield monitoring every significant one in the US, had what the Avengers lacked - heart.

'I don't really know much about fashion Ma'am, but I'll look for you in the magazines.' He instinctively swept the area for threats, then fell in beside Demarr as he led the way to a tiny pizza parlour miraculously still open in the chaos. They took the last available table, rubbing elbows with exhausted EMTs, volunteers and firefighters.

The pizza was good and Steve was pleasantly surprised to find that both Ashley and Demarr enjoyed baseball. Bruce shook his head resignedly as the other two men engaged in a heated debate about the line-up of their fantasy baseball team, Ashley chipping in to support or decry particular choices with good-natured humour.

Steve chuckled when they stepped out of the pizza joint and Ashley turned to Bruce. ' You didn't mention where you're staying, Mr Bannister. Can I walk you home? There's been a real spike in street crime in the areas the street lamps got knocked out.'

Demarr noticed the laugh, felt a stab of annoyance at the golden boy of supers, 'Mr Heroism' himself laughing at Ashley for being a good person who took her responsibilities seriously. 'Hey, just because we're Z-list supers doesn't mean we're gonna shirk making sure my man here gets home without getting mugged!'

Steve hastily backpedaled. 'No Demarr, that's not what I was laughing about. Bruce, don't these good folks deserve the truth?'

Bruce wanted to sigh at Steve's pressure to confess, but very few people were genuinely glad to see Bruce Banner and the number of people who'd actually stepped in between him and someone trying to hurt him was in single figures. Based on that line of reasoning they deserved to know more than nearly all of the Avengers and Shield crowd.

He removed his spectacles, letting the pair blur in his sight. 'Cap's right. I haven't been entirely honest with you. My name isn't Bob Bannister, my real name is Bruce Banner.'

'The gamma ray scientist guy? He died in a crazy lab explosion over a year ago!' Demarr caught Ashley's bewildered expression. 'Flatman is a big fan, he tried to explain the science to me. It's complex stuff, but really interesting.'

'Did we ever find what his doctorate is in?' Ashley asked in bemusement at the breadth of their most intellectual teammate's knowledge.

'Apparently it was "stuff".' Demarr wiggled his fingers in invisible quote marks. He dragged the topic back on track. 'But he knows his stuff usually, so how come we rescued the ghost of scientists past?'

'Ah, now that's going to take a bit longer.' Bruce forced a smile. How come nearly everyone he told his real name to had enough of a handle on scientific affairs that they'd heard of his death? Where was the dumbing down of American society he'd heard so much about on talk radio?

Tony looked up at the sound of the elevator arriving on the communal floor. Pepper made to lift her head from his shoulder, but yawned into it instead as the credits for Bicentennial Man ran in the background. The book had been better, but Tony was a sucker for Asimov in all forms.

'Hey, is that Ashley Crawford? Have you been inviting supermodels back here behind my back?' Pepper growled dangerously. She thought they were past this and although she knew the New York battle had been hard on him if he thought that excused this nonsense then he had another thing coming. Damn' she was gorgeous in the flesh!

'Omigod! Pepper Potts! Forbes' 'Most Powerful Woman in America' three years running!' The other woman nearly shrieked in excitement, grabbing the arms of both Bruce and a twenty-something man flanking her other side. Tony blinked at both the yell and the fact this strange supermodel had barely even noticed him, what was he, chopped liver?

'This is too weird.... You live in Stark Tower, I'm like five yards away from Captain America and Pepper freaking Potts! What next, you're secretly a member of the Avengers?'

Bruce started laughing nervously at the shocked model's facetiously exact guess. 'Uh... Yeah, actually.'

Demarr and Ashley both sank onto the nearest couch, staring at him open-mouthed. 'Those people you saved me from were members of the US army. You see the lab accident didn't kill me, so much as change me..'

'Into a honking great green rage monster.' Tony was bored of watching his pal beat around the bush. In unison the two guests collapsed back into the could cushions, looking utterly poleaxed.

'Yeah, that little titbit of information took me that way too.' Pepper interjected ruefully, anger vanishing in the face of the fact it seemed Bruce had invited the supermodel up, not Tony.

'You're the Hulk?' Demarr sucked in a shocked breath as one of their few victories was wrenched from them. 'So you didn't need saving after all! You're the Hulk!'

Bruce looked at Demarr's betrayed expression and guilt twisted in his guts, along with surprise that that aspect was what upset the man, not his being a monster. 'No, you still saved me that day, Demarr, Ashley. I was so stressed and scared I was seconds away from transforming into the other guy and then he would have hurt, maybe even killed a lot of people as he escaped. You saved me from causing yet more harm and saved a whole squad of soldiers whose 'crime' was doing their job and trying to protect the public, from being maimed or killed. You're good people and I'm glad you rescued me. Thank-you.'

Pepper bit her lip at the tears that Bruce's soft, sincere words threatened to draw from her. Ashley gave him a wobbly smile that still shone, even through her mixed emotions. 'Hey, us freaks have to stick together. Mr I, Flatman and Squirrel Girl are gonna be so amazed we helped out a proper A-list superhero!'

'Squirrel Girl?' Tony's astonished voice broke in. 'The kid found herself a team then?'

Demarr and Ashley nodded, looking at the billionaire in bemusement. 'She only joined a few months back, but she fought the good fight alongside us against Maelstrom and she's a good kid. You know her?'

Tony chuckled. 'She tried to apply to be my sidekick. Gutsy little thing isn't she? I told her to get through college and I'd put in a good word for her with a group who'd appreciate her, looks like she found an outfit that appreciates her just fine without my help.'

Bruce looked at Ashley speculatively and he wondered if this was unfair, then figured she might benefit too. 'Tony, Ashley here has a transformation that dramatically increases her size.'

Tony looked intrigued. 'You think she might be a good tester for our new super-spandex?'

Bruce nodded, then turned to Ashley. 'Tony and I have been working on a new super-stretch fabric, but testing it by having me Hulk out is... Well, it's a little difficult right now. Would you be interested in helping us test it?'

'Given that my current leotard basically only holds together thanks to the grace of the comics code and everyone in a five mile radius' desperate desire not to see Big Bertha in the unforgettable altogether? So long as you let me have a couple of the final version in return!'

Tony was even more intrigued. 'Well we've got half a dozen prototypes made, so let's head to the gym level so you've got space to test how it moves and you can use the changing room there.'

The prototypes had been made in Bruce's size, so getting the powerfully elasticated garment up over her shoulders was a bit of a tussle, but she'd modelled harder to get into outfits in her time.

'Damn' she could wear a Hefty bag and still make half the women in the room look dowdy.' Tony commented, then shut his mouth fast when he noticed Black Widow lurking silently near the high ceiling, out of potential Hulk range.

'So do you want a gradual change, or fast or what?'

'Explosively fast, if you can. We want the maximum pressure put on this in the shortest time.' Tony instructed, keeping his tone professional. This was someone Bruce liked, or at least who had treated him well. Getting on the good side of Bruce's allies and amassing them here might give him more reasons to stay, might help him feel safe. Maybe he should have Jarvis check her agent, toss some work her way to give her excuses to drop by? Maybe set aside a few guest rooms for these guys?

'Okay.' She huffed a few quick breaths in and out, like a power lifter getting ready to do their thing. Then she seemed to puff out and with a noise Tony's mind spelt as the onomatopoeia 'splonch' she exploded out in all directions to be replaced by a morbidly obese giantess wearing the tatters of the first prototype.

Both men hastily spun around to give her some privacy. 'That's definitely a no. Big Ashley is smaller than the other guy, although not by all that much.'

'Are you okay, Bertha?' Bruce asked, staring at the wall.

'That just took me by surprise. It's lucky I'm pretty impervious to stuff in maxed out mode or that would have really smarted! Give me five to change, guys.'

Bruce frowned in concern. 'Should we ask Pepper to check Ashley's okay? A smack like that from super stressed fabric she could have been hurt!'

'I will check on the woman.' Black Widow slid down the rope. Typical scientists, doing dangerous things without thinking it through, just for the pathetic sense of power their intellectual mastery gave them, then crying when people got hurt by their experiments. Natasha wondered how she would ever be able to work effectively with such foolish children.

She tapped on the door, then slid in and followed the sound of vomiting. To have hurt the stranger so badly the pain made her puke... 'Easy there, Ashley. I'll get you some water.'

'Oh, hi Miss. Thanks.' Being a model Ashley had had to discard most of her self-consciousness about nudity, but being caught out nude and praying to the porcelain god made her flush and grab a spare towel. She accepted the bottle of water the petite redhead offered with polite thanks.

'How badly were you injured when the clothing snapped?' Natasha bridled at quaint cultural customs of body shame as she tried to examine the taller woman for welts. 'It must have been painful to make you nauseous.'

The strange woman's voice was matter of fact as she tried to make Ashley drop her towel and Ashley huffed an amused exhalation as she realised what the other thought. 'I really am fine. You caught me shedding the bulk of my super form. It's gross, but it's the only way I can reduce my mass. Kinda weird given that packing it on is just a case of concentrating, as is redistributing my weight around my body. I'm fine, see.'

She dropped the towel and did a pirouette to demonstrate. 'In that form I can shrug off bullets, an exploding swimsuit isn't going to do much more damage than twanging my bra-strap.'

Natasha had developed an appreciation for the human form's beauty over the course of her life and there was nothing wrong with the woman stood before her, but plenty to admire. It took more effort than she was used to exerting to look away from those curves. 'I believe you, but I still wish to check you remain unhurt by those two's experiments. They can get carried away by the excitement of their work sometimes, you should not have to pay for that.'

The beautiful woman's expression softened, compassion and gratitude warming her eyes. 'I appreciate that. Thank you.' She was an open book, simple and far from Natasha's world, perhaps that as well as her beauty was what she found intriguing about the stranger.

'Hmm, this construction is similar to the failure, maybe this one instead.' Ashley rooted through the folded prototypes to find a double-knit, seamlessly constructed leotard in a lighter weight fabric. Perhaps integrity of construction rather than heavy reinforcement might be the way forward. She slid into it and stepped out again, followed closely by the petite stranger.

'Okay, so attempt two is with B325.' Tony stated, reading the serial number stamped onto the left leg of the bodysuit. 'You okay to continue?' She'd been in there a while, longer than it took to change outfits.'

'Uh huh, ready in 3, 2, 1!' Ashley smiled brightly, it was good to help Bruce again.

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to get my own favourite superhero group into the mix. Go GLA!


End file.
